


coming home

by curseofmen



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Families of Choice, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Mild Blood, Minor Injuries, Obi-Wan is a good dad, Platonic Cuddling, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27459448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curseofmen/pseuds/curseofmen
Summary: “Can you tell us a story, Master?” Ahsoka mutters with half of her face pressed into the cushions.“What kind of story do you want to hear, Ahsoka?”“Just any story.”[or: the lineage being soft with each other and finding comfort where they need it]
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 34
Kudos: 352





	coming home

**Author's Note:**

> just them being soft with each other <3  
> kudos and comments are always appreciated!

Obi-Wan paces in the hangar of the Temple and that even though he hasn’t paced in years. He hasn’t paced since that eventful day of Naboo when he had to watch Qui-Gon get murdered and he wasn’t able to do anything about it. Ever since that day, he has learnt to hide his stress better―it only comes back to him on some days, when he’s too worried to pretend otherwise or attempt to hide it. When Anakin or Ahsoka aren’t around to make him pretend he’s not that worried to soothe theirs, because if they are not around that makes them the objects of his worry. Most of the time at least. 

“Stop pacing you can, Obi-Wan,” Master Yoda says, interrupting the trainwreck of thoughts he’s been caught in. “Alive they are, no?”

“Well, yes,” Obi-Wan admits. 

They are alive, of course, they are alive because Obi-Wan would’ve felt Anakin’s light go out, even with their bond stretched across the galaxy. And if close enough he would’ve felt Ahsoka too, because there’s a small bond that connects them too. It’s as fragile as a blooming flower in winter―not supposed to be there in the first place but there nonetheless. They don’t stop it from growing stronger because it means comfort and comfort is what they need desperately among all this pain. And it makes it easier to keep her safe, too. 

“Then you can calm down, Obi-Wan,” Mace interjects with a dry voice and Obi-Wan stops pacing if only for a moment before he starts again and Mace gives an audible sigh.

“Fine,” he says, “don’t calm down then.”

“Leave you to it we will,” Yoda calmly interrupts them, a tinge of amusement in his voice, as he looks up to Obi-Wan. “Speak to us, tomorrow they can.”

Mace nods at that and then they leave him alone with his thoughts again. Just before exiting the hangar Mace turns around to him one last time. 

“You are a piece of work, Obi-Wan.”

He raises his hands in fake surrender before he starts pacing again as soon as Mace and Master Yoda are out of sight.

It only takes a few more minutes for them to arrive and Obi-Wan has to force himself back into his calm composure he has taken on around everyone else. It’s no use pretending around Master Yoda and Mace―not that it works with Anakin and Ahsoka particularly well either but to some extent he has to at least try for them. They drop off Anakin and Ahsoka in a gunship and when they finally step out of it Obi-Wan feels almost all of the tension leave his body. Within a second he feels lighter.  
  
They are safe and they are alive. And at the end of the day, that is all that really matters to Obi-Wan. That’s more than can be said for too many victims of the war. They are safe but they don’t look too well. 

Half of Anakin’s face is smeared with blood, which finds its origin in a large cut across his left cheek and the orange colour of Ahsoka’s skin is almost gone in its entirety; instead, brown dirt covers almost all of her, including her face. Anakin doesn’t use his right foot properly. 

“Obi-Wan,” Anakin calls while they walk up to him, “I thought you’d be Felucia.”

“Finished up early,” Obi-Wan answers softly, reaching out to tug at one of Anakin’s curls which are crusted in dirt and blood, “why do you look like you haven’t even stepped one foot in the medbay yet?”

“Because we haven’t, Master,” Ahsoka answers almost a tad too carefree, even with the tiredness in her eyes and the way she’s slightly slumped over like holding herself up is too hard for her right now. Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow.

“Needed the ships to get the men to the medical stations,” Anakin explains shrugging, a small smile pulling at his lip, “and we needed to get back for the―”  
“The Council will wait until tomorrow,” Obi-Wan interrupts, not unkind before he finally steps in between Anakin and Ahsoka and turns around to guide them out of the hangar. He lets his hands hover over Ahsoka’s shoulder and over the small of Anakin’s back as he guides them through the Temple and towards their Quarters. 

“Any broken bones?” Obi-Wan asks, “Do we need to make a stop at the Halls of Healing?”

Both of them shake their heads and neither of them protests when it comes to the other so they aren’t lying at the very least. Anakin went to bed with broken ribs before, when he didn’t want to go to the Halls of Healing because doing just anything was too hard on him. In the next morning, Obi-Wan had to basically carry him there. 

“Good.”

So their quarters it is then. On their way to the quarters, Anakin only stumbles once and Obi-Wan will definitely have to take a look at whatever is wrong with Anakin’s right foot once they have settled down. Obi-Wan pushes the door to the quarters open and ushers Anakin and Ahsoka into the room.

"Come on, little ones," Obi-Wan mutters as he closes the door behind them. Anakin and Ahsoka don't hesitate before falling down on the sofa, slumping against each other bonelessly. 

"My head hurts," Ahsoka whines, dropping it against Anakin's shoulder who lets his head fall on top of hers, making her wince. 

"Sorry, sorry," he mutters. A second later: "I'm cold."

Obi-Wan spares them a glance and sighs. Slumped against each other they appear so incredibly small and young. Because they are so very young, Obi-Wan reminds himself. Too young to have seen and lived through all of all this. 

"Oh, dear."

He gets some blankets for them, and painkillers out of the bathroom. They will need plenty of them from what it looks like. They also need a shower but he hardly suspects they will be able to stand so that will have to wait until tomorrow. When he gets back to them, both of them have their eyes closed but are not yet asleep as far as he can tell from their Force signatures. 

He is careful when he handles Anakin into an upright position so he can wrap a blanket around his shoulders and then do the same thing for Ahsoka. He hands two of the painkillers to Anakin who only opens his eyes after getting nudged several times and who at this point can swallow them dry before he gets up to get Ahsoka a glass of water to swallow the painkillers with. 

Ahsoka takes the glass of water and the painkillers from him while Obi-Wan turns around to get back to the kitchen area of the quarters.

"I will make tea," Obi-Wan announces, putting one of their many kettles down on the stove, before filling up one of the wooden bowls with lukewarm water. He grabs one of the towels from the table when he moves back to Anakin and Ahsoka who have slumped against each other again. Their necks will hurt in the morning but Obi-Wan knows there is no use in telling them. They are tired and the only thing stopping them from sleeping right now is the fact that Obi-Wan will not let them go to bed with open cuts and wounds because getting blood out of fabrics is a mess and he does not want to spend his free day that way. 

"I assume things didn't go as planned?" Obi-Wan probes, dragging a stool with him to sit down in front of the couch and Ahsoka snorts. 

"Things didn't go as planned," Ahsoka confirms, "we had to walk through swampland for a week."

He dips the cloth into the bowl of water, tackling the most obvious injury first. He rests his left hand against Anakin's other cheek to steady his face and then he begins working on the large cut across his Padawan’s face. He gets rid of the blood around the cut first because that's not going to hurt before he cleans the cut. Anakin winces.

"It's over in a moment, dear," Obi-Wan mutters. When at least the left half of Anakin's face is clean Obi-Wan puts the bacta patch Ahsoka already has ready for him over the cut. In silence, with only their quiet breaths and the rattling of the kettle to hear, Obi-Wan continues cleaning Anakin’s face until it’s finally free of all the dirt and blood. At this point, the kettle hisses on the stove and Obi-Wan gets up to get their tea ready before he will have a look at Ahsoka. 

He pretends to ignore how Anakin quietly snorts at him slightly having to stretch to get two of the cups from the highest cupboards. Vapour collects around him when he pours the hot water into the cups and drops the tea leaves into them afterwards. 

"Put ginger in mine," Ahsoka calls. They keep their ginger in one of the wooden bowls on top of the counter. He pulls the lid off of the bowl to drop a spoonful of it in Ahsoka's cup. That should be enough. She stares at him expectantly. Apparently not then. 

"Another one."

Obi-Wan complies, even though he can hardly imagine that this tea will still taste any good. He prefers sweets. Just like Anakin does. 

"That is disgusting," Anakin comments. 

"It's only ginger," Ahsoka bites back, "just because you can't handle anything spicy."

"I can handle spicy food," Anakin hisses, with his hair still dirty, he looks like a tooka in the lower levels of Coruscant. "But in _tea,_ it's disgusting."

He lets them bicker about it while he gets the honey pot and the sugar bowl for Anakin’s tea. With two spoons of honey and one spoon of sugar Anakin almost likes his tea sickeningly sweet. Maybe even a tad too sweet for Obi-Wan but he would still drink Anakin’s cup of tea over Ahsoka’s ginger mess. He pulls the sleeves of his robe over his hands so he can touch the cups and turn around to them. 

Anakin looks over to Obi-Wan who holds both cups in his hands and even though they don’t burn his hands because of the fabric they’re still warm and he would like to put them down as soon as possible. He hasn't moved away from the stove yet, observing them bickering as always.

"Put more honey in mine," Anakin says, "just because our Padawan clearly hasn't inherited our good taste in tea."

Ahsoka rolls her eyes at him but doesn’t say anything in return. Maybe they are finally too tired to bicker. At least for the rest of the day. Obi-Wan doesn’t have it in him to object to Anakin’s request because his Padawan has had hard days and if he wants to drink his tea with three spoons of honey and one spoon of sugar… who is Obi-Wan to say no to him? Who is Obi-Wan, in general, to ever tell his Padawan no? He’s not too good at that, of that he is aware. Anakin who watches him observantly with his big blue eyes smiles at him. 

“Thank you.”

“As always, Padawan mine,” Obi-Wan mutters. 

Neither Anakin nor Ahsoka move their hands out from under the blankets, instead, they just reach out to him from under them. With a small smile, he hands one cup to Anakin while setting down Ahsoka’s cup on the floor next to his stool. 

“Hey,” Ahsoka whines, “just because you don’t―”

“Your hand Padawan,” Obi-Wan gently interrupts her, “I still have to look at it.”

Technically also her face, it's still covered in dirt. At that Ahsoka quiets down and moves her left hand out from under the blanket and presents it to Obi-Wan, with her palm turned upwards. 

There’s a large cut across her palm and Obi-Wan keeps one hand wrapped around her injured one while reaching for the bowl with water. From the corner of his eye, he catches Anakin scrambling up from the couch―probably to get a bacta patch for her. He smiles. 

“Well, how exactly did this happen?”

Ahsoka doesn’ tend to injure her hands all too often since she wields two lightsabers and for most of it they are in her hands during the battle which leaves hardly any room to attack them. 

“Had to climb,” Ahsoka huffs, “I caught a sharp rock. We didn’t have any time to properly look at it.” She shrugs. “Kix wanted to but we had to keep moving.”

Obi-Wan repeats the same ritual he followed through with on Anakin's face on Ahsoka’s hand. The wound is dirty and some of the blood has already dried up, blended in together with the dirt. She flinches only once. 

“Apologies, dear.”

“It’s okay,” Ahsoka whispers. Almost as if he’s without any bones at all, Anakin falls back onto the couch and hands Obi-Wan the bacta patch who applies it to Ahsoka’s hand immediately. Obi-Wan puts his fingers under Ahsoka's chin and swiftly cleans her face too. A gleeful expression settles onto her face when Obi-Wan finally hands her the cup of tea. While she brings the cup to her lips she eyes Anakin until he snaps.

“What?”

“You know Dex has that really good soup,” Ahsoka says, trying to sound as casual as possible.

“And what about it?” 

“Lots of ginger in it,” Ahsoka mutters, taking the first sip from her tea, “maybe you could try it tomorrow.”

Anakin just frowns at her. However, Obi-Wan knows he has already decided that he will have this soup tomorrow. 

“You’re still on shore leave tomorrow, right Master?”

Ahsoka stares at him until he nods and she goes back to drinking her tea in peace. 

“You will sleep here, I presume,” Obi-Wan says, “unless you still want to move?”

Ahsoka just makes a whiney sound from the back of her throat and Anakin shakes his head. They have slept in worse places, Obi-Wan knows because he has been there as well so he knows they will survive, even if their necks and limbs will hurt a little bit more than they would if they had slept in their beds instead. 

“Then you should sleep now,” Obi-Wan mutters. Ahsoka empties the rest of her cup and puts it down on the floor when she sinks onto her side to lay down. 

“What about my hair?” Anakin whines, “I will never get it out tomorrow.”

Obi-Wan rolls his eyes. 

“Don’t complain about it,” he says while already getting up from his chair to get a bowl with fresh water and a comb out of the bathroom. 

“Why would I complain?” Anakin calls from his seat. 

“Because it’s going to hurt,” he calls back. Obi-Wan will certainly not dump a bowl of water on Anakin and the sofa so he will only get the hair damp and then removing all the dirt and blood from it will hurt. And because he knows Anakin, Obi-Wan knows that Anakin is going to complain and whine about it for the whole process. 

With his fore-and middle finger Obi-Wan tips, Anakin’s head back until the back of his head is pressed against the backrest of the sofa. 

“Can you tell us a story, Master?” Ahsoka mutters with half of her face pressed into the cushions. 

“What kind of story do you want to hear, Ahsoka?”

“Just any story.”

Once Anakin’s hair is as damp as it can be without getting everything else wet as well, Obi-Wan begins working through Anakin’s curls with the comb. 

Her voice is a little smaller than usual and Obi-Wan feels warmth all over for her again. She's precious to him, just like Anakin is.

“That I can do.” Obi-Wan smiles while Anakin moves in discomfort every time Obi-Wan has to give it a little yank to get through the dirt that clings to his curls. Fortunately, it is more dirt than blood in there. 

“Why do I feel like I won’t like this?” Anakin whines, a low rumble to his voice. Obi-Wan tugs at one of his hair strands. 

“You know,” Obi-Wan starts, “when Anakin was still a Padawan, we took a trip to Mimban where―”

He’s interrupted when Anakin starts to cough loudly. Ahsoka kicks after him with her one foot. 

“I want to hear the story.”

“Well, Obi-Wan doesn’t want to tell it, right?”

“Oh, I’m sure your Padawan would like to hear all about―”

“The Hoi-broth incident?” Anakin interrupts him again and at that Obi-Wan clicks his mouth shut. It’s enough to make Ahsoka rise from her position and twist her upper body so she can stare at Obi-Wan with her arms pillowed on the backrest. One of her cheeks is squished up against her arms. 

“What is the Hoi-broth incident?”

Her eyes are full of curiosity and with a spark of mischief in them and Obi-Wan will never forgive the universe if the war will someday manage to burn that out of her. Obi-Wan reaches out to pat her head between her montrals. 

“Maybe on another day, my little one.”

“You’re just being secretive again,” she complains, sinking back into her lying position. 

“What instead of the trip to Mimban I tell you about the day your great-great-great Grandmaster…”

“Just say Master Yoda,” Anakin quietly interjects, while he closes his eyes again and sinks back into Obi-Wan’s touch. 

“The day your great-great-great Grandmaster,” Obi-Wan continues, not bothered by Anakin’s comments at all, “brought a so-called antique to the Temple with him and we couldn’t use the council chamber for a whole week after that.”  
Anakin lets out a laugh while Ahsoka peaks up again. 

“I remember that,” Anakin adds, “Aayla and I had classes with Master Windu when they came to tell him.”

Obi-Wan doesn’t need to look into Anakin’s face to know of the gleeful smile that is settled on his face there right now. He knows Ahsoka is smiling too. 

“Tell me about that,” she whispers, stifling a yawn into one of the cushions, “please.”

And so Obi-Wan tells the story while he frees Anakin’s hair of the dirt and blood until he can run his fingers through it again without getting tangled up in them no more than usual and until Ahsoka falls asleep. Ahsoka falls asleep fast in a vague imitation of the fetus position, with one leg tucked closely to her chest and the other one thrown over Anakin’s legs. By now Anakin has curled up on the sofa as well, close enough to falling asleep too. 

"Maybe we can meditate together tomorrow," Anakin mutters, one cheek squished against the armrest of the couch. Obi-Wan looks down at him. For a moment he thinks it’s the medication talking.

"Well if that isn't a surprise."

"Don't ruin it, old man."

"Hush up, Padawan mine," Obi-Wan mutters while stroking his hand over Anakin's hand. "Of course we can do that tomorrow. Now sleep."

Resting his hand on Anakin’s head for a while he sends a gentle sleep suggestion to Anakin through the Force. Calm uncurls at the end of Anakin’s side of their bond and he feels him slip into sleep a second later, while Obi-Wan starts to clean up around their quarters in silence to not disturb the two. 

And then Obi-Wan watches Anakin and Ahsoka sleep for a while, he watches until he has his worried mind convinced that no harm will come to them, not any more than is necessary. 

Not as long as he is watching over them at last.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/bIyIas) or my [tumblr](https://curse-of-men.tumblr.com/)


End file.
